The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new recommendations for opening schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
Launched on February 12, the CDC defined four categories of education – classroom, hybrid, classroom and virtual. Recommendations for which category to use depend on the spread of the coronavirus in a community. The CDC classified anything over 100 cases per 100,000 residents over a 7-day period as a high infection rate and labeled these areas as “red zones”.
In the interior of the state, where many students are already in classrooms five days a week, infection rates are well above what the CDC considers high.
Recommendations are just that – guidance without requirements. It is not yet known how much information from Friday, if any, would be applied to an academic year that is now more than half completed. State education and health authorities have consistently stated that face-to-face instruction is safe with appropriate mask, detachment and quarantine procedures.
“Schools are among the safest places in our communities,” South Carolina’s chief epidemiologist, Dr. Linda Bell, told state senators last week.
Here is how some school districts in the interior of the state are positioned in relation to the new recommendations.
Greenville County Schools
Greenville County schools are partially aligned with the CDC’s recommendations. As a red zone district, it would be advisable to keep your primary schools open, as long as protocols are followed.
Between the 6th and 12th grades, however, Greenville schools are off the charts. The CDC recommended that primary and secondary schools close if there are many cases in the community – which happens here – and only remain open if the cases in schools are “few”.
Greenville County’s current coronavirus infection rate, calculated by adding the number of cases per 100,000 people in seven days, is 301 – three times the number needed to put you in the red zone. The rate at Greenville County Schools is currently 249 – also in the red zone, but consistently lower than the county rate as a whole.
School district officials analyzed these case rates for months. Showing that people are safer within schools is the foundation of the district’s logic for more face-to-face classes, even when community outreach has reached high levels. CDC recommendations, in general, do not recognize this approach.
“We will review and weigh the CDC document in its entirety and seek input from our local and state health and public health experts, as we did throughout the pandemic, before making any decision to change our current status,” wrote the door Greenville school voice, Teri Brinkman, via text message Friday night.
GCS also has no testing regime for employees or students. District officials said employees’ health insurance covers examinations and that employees should be tested whenever they suspect they have been exposed or are not feeling well. The federal government recommended that school districts in the red zone, such as Greenville, test all regularly to remain open.
Sports and indoor activities are another topic covered in the CDC’s recommendations. Schools in red zone communities must be “virtual only”, say the recommendations. This echoes the advice that a Prisma immunologist gave the district before classes resumed after the winter holiday. Wrestling and basketball at Greenville County schools continued.
Thousands of Greenville parents signed petitions calling on schools to close when community expansion is high. But the opposing arguments are strong. The school district has faced intense pressure to keep schools open to working parents. Several school board members on February 9 shared stories of children suffering mentally from isolation imposed by coronavirus protocols. The grades also suffered, prompting the district to launch a $ 38.5 million academic recovery program lasting 15 months.
About 52,000 of the approximately 74,000 students in Greenville County attend classes in person at least part of the time. According to CDC’s previous guidance, everyone in Greenville schools wear masks, cleans frequently and remains socially distant – six feet away or three feet with acrylic.
The rest of the students in the district opted for online classes throughout the year.
At the elementary and high school levels, the 35,000 face-to-face students (“traditional attendance”) are in the classroom throughout the week after the beginning of the year on a hybrid schedule. The district’s 15,000 “traditional attendance” high school students remain on a hybrid schedule because students cannot maintain adequate social distance if all attend simultaneously.
Brinkman said earlier that the district’s overall objective is to align its care plans with the CDC and state health officials. Tim Waller, another spokesman, said the district will need time to review the CDC’s new recommendations to determine whether the changes are in order.
Anderson County
Pickens county
With more than 400 cases per 100,000 residents, Pickens County’s seven-day average is more than four times what the CDC considers its red zone. For now, the county is following state guidelines, which recommend full-time face-to-face classes until March 22, said John Eby, a spokesman for the Pickens County School District.
“The CDC guidelines are useful, but it’s a little late for that,” said Eby.
He does not know whether the new guidelines will change the schedule recommended by the state. Thirteen percent of the nearly 16,000 students in Pickens County are taking virtual classes, a significant drop of around 23% at the beginning of the school year.
The school district determined that, with very few exceptions, positive cases among students come from contacts made outside of school, said Eby.
“The school is not without risks, but it is safer than the places it would go if schools were closed,” he said.
Spartanburg County
Follow Ryan Gilchrest on Twitter at @ryangilchrest.